I'm a staff writer at Forbes, where until recently I chased the super-rich for our Forbes 400 and World's Billionaires lists. Now I'm covering the consumer economy, writing about the big personalities reinventing retail. Before Forbes, I worked as a news reporter in the UK and my home country of Bermuda, a travel writer for Frommer's and an intern for CNN's Anderson Cooper while completing a master's degree at Columbia University. Got a story idea? Email me at coconnor@forbes.com.

These Five Billionaires Lost Over $30 Million To Karl Rove This Election, But Will Stick By Him

Karl Rove's American Crossroads spent $104 million this cycle with a 1.29% return on investment.

If you happen to be a liberal with a taste for schadenfreude, you’ve likely watched Karl Rove’s excruciating live meltdown on Fox News as the conservative station declared Ohio, and therefore the presidency, for Barack Obama on election night. Perhaps you’ve also read the comments on his Wednesday night Washington Post op-ed, in which he pinned Obama’s victory partly on “an act of God”, Hurricane Sandy (spoiler alert: the comments include terms like ‘snake oil salesman’).

But it isn’t you coastal lefties chortling at Jon Stewart’s Rove takedown who deserved answers from the former Bush spinner this week. Almost one third of the $104 million Rove’s American Crossroads super PAC spent this election cycle came from just five members of the Forbes rich list:

1. Harold Simmons: the Texas oilman, his wife and his company Contran collectively gave $19.5 million to Rove’s group.

2. Robert Rowling: the Dallas investor and owner of the Omni hotels and Gold’s Gym chains threw in $5 million total to Rove through his TRT Holdings.

3. Joseph Craft: the Oklahoma oil tycoon spent $3.35 million total on Rove’s group, through both his own trust and his family company Alliance Resource Partners.

4. Jerrold Perenchio: the one-time Univision chief gave American Crossroads $2.5 million through his media investment firm Chartwell partners.

5. B. Wayne Hughes: the founder of self-storage giant Public Storage and thoroughbred horse breeder may have had a premonition this time around, giving just $1 million to Rove’s group, compared to the $3.25 million he doled out for the 2010 midterm elections.

Other billionaire donors to American Crossroads included Kenny Troutt, Craig McCaw, Ken Griffin and Warren Stephens.

As transparency watchdog the Sunlight Foundation calculated, American Crossroads’ super-rich investors including these five saw only a 1.29% return on their investment. Compare that dismal figure to left-leaning political group Majority PAC, who counted billionaires George Soros and James Simons as backers: they saw an 87.86% return on the cash they spent backing Democratic candidates and opposing Republicans.

While Rove doesn’t seem publicly contrite, he and his American Crossroads team have been in touch with his top donors since Wednesday morning, said his public affairs guru Jonathan Collegio. The American Crossroads spokesman added that these billionaires are grateful to have funded anti-Obama attack ads that helped Romney get further than he otherwise would have in swing states.

“Folks are disappointed with the results, but that doesn’t mean they’re dissatisfied,” Collegio said. “President Obama overspent Mitt Romney on ads by $154 million, and that’s probably understating the disparity because some of Romney’s ads were placed late in the game. Our donors are pleased because had American Crossroads’ ads not been there to bridge the gap, I don’t think we would’ve been so close in places like Ohio and Florida.”

Collegio said that Rove’s super-rich backers have been kept in the loop throughout the election. Now, he and his team will prepare a report to be distributed among donors by the end of the year. “We’ve been communicating to them so they’re aware of what we did and how we did it,” he says. “There’s this misconception: it’s not like their money went into a black box.”

American Crossroads doesn’t expect its billionaire backers to jump ship anytime soon. Said Collegio: “We’re dusting ourselves off and figuring out how to move forward.”

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Like minds will stick together… and come subsequent elections they once again will throw their money into a black hole. I believe that it will take sometime for the GOP to become an appealing alternative party to vote for. The GOP it seems to me have always been insistant on living in the past… they seem to have no forward looking qualitites… and the continuance to back Karl Rove… is just yet another example of that. The GOP… in all their “Conservative” nature are falling behind… and are seriously out of touch… not sure how you fix that…. but think it may take some time to change their ways. Throwing money into nonsensical lies and partial truths… isnt the way to American’s hearts. Some serious thought should be put into the GOP’s thought process… because running strictly on ones “Principles” isnt working too well these days. Govern for all…. not just your constituents of your state…. Govern for All….

your white! hahaha. You know what, Clare is one of these people who gets mad at the black people who actually marched with Dr. King and say that they didn’t march 1 inch so that a man could marry another man. No no, enlightened liberals like Clare will tell you they didn’t grasp the concept of the civil rights movement. Nevermind that Clare didn’t march.

Being black and being gay are not close at all. You are born black, you are not born gay, its a lie. There are people who have switched mid life from being gay to being straight, and vice versa. Furthermore, gay people have admitted this hard fact that Clare can’t stand.

the study is quite comprehensive. If you read the addenda, they gathered data from midwestern colleges for over 3 years of rape allegations. They found that women were equally likely to report a true charge as a false one.

Oh do stop. A study from 3 Midwestern colleges? How very comprehensive! A round-up of all academic study on rape allegations by Cambridge puts that figure at 2%. Not 50%. http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=D17D698B631970F0D62C6ACC0D72E25C.journals?fromPage=online&aid=430299

Of course they are sticking by Rove and other conservatives, where else would they go? Far left wing Obama wants to raise taxes on everyone who has money (except himself of course – he only paid a 16.7% effective tax rate), including these guys. Obama represents a typical liberal politician – ensure that the certain groups in America never have to work again and break the backs of successful business people. The “you didn’t build that” comment is more about doing a plug for big government and an opportunity to denigrate entrepreneurship.

Rove needs not to apologize for anything. I did not see his reaction personally, but who cares? If you saw the emotional Obama and his “you didn’t build that” comment, should he apologize? It seems to me that a double standard exists here and I think the readers deserve an explanation.

amen brother. Obama, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are part of a new demographic called “the good rich.” The good rich say the rights things to please liberals…and that’s it. They never actually pay higher taxes or donate money to the government. They just know that they can please the mob by saying they will pay higher taxes. And then the media heralds them. Its unbelievable, the majority shareholder in the company making the Obama phones is Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world.